grew manifold evils in social, intellectual, and even in religious life. It was claimed that men must do the world's work except that of the home - that women must be silent in the churches, seen and not heard there; never attempt to earn a livelihood through the ordinary industries; avoid higher education; and accept the erroneous and humiliating verdict, that females have less ability than males, and cannot make the progress, and endure the strain of hard study, requisite to excellence. But all these old errors have been exploded since soul-culture has come to the front. Women are joint-partners now in making the world better. They create events and grow enterprises with as much ease and executive ability as men ever did. They make history. Their biographies are as really national history now as the biographies of the male sex. Emerson said, "There is properly no history-only biography." It is just as true of women as it is of men. They think and act now for posterity, as men do, not being compelled by custom or legislation to think and act for themselves only. They "make their lives sublime" by making their lives better. Men shut the door of equality and progress in their faces, until God opened it. And it will never be shut again.

This volume furnishes much proof of what we have just said. It sketches lives which prove, beyond question, that the views of womanhood, a hundred years ago, were astonishingly false. They show that women are as able and bright as men; can perform as much labor, physical and mental; can be blest

with as good health; can endure the strain of work and study as well; and can become as great achievers for humanity and God. They expose the fallacy, also, that the necessity for hard work is a misfortune; that women cannot grapple with poverty and slim opportunities as successfully as men; and that industry, self-reliance, and perseverance will not lift a woman as high as a man. The weight of evidence shows that the same qualities in the female assure true success precisely as they do in the male; not one of them can be dropped out without failure.

We call this a match-volume with that for "Men;" and it is that surely-a MATCH. Girls may take heart and enter the arena for the prize without fear or favor. No apologies or explanations are necessary. If the book shall inspire this class to illustrate, by their life-work, that women can make things happen, the author's purpose will be accomplished.

FRANKLIN, MASS., 1896.

WILLIAM M. THAYER.